BE KEEPS WATCH in
Hodgenville's town square (above),
a few miles from his birthplaceand
a second boyhood home. Compatriotsof
his parents,from Virginia,North
Carolina,and Pennsylvania,peopled the
game-rich hills in the late 18th and
early 19th centuries; their descendants
number in the majority today. A sense
of belonging brings strollers andjaw
waggers to a comer in downtown
Greensburg(right). An early river port,
railhead,and industrialtown, the
Green County seat now quietly serves
the needs of the surrounding
agriculturalcommunity.
534
encouraged to own their own land and to get
an education."
One of the first blacks admitted to the
University of Kentucky in Lexington, in
1949, H. R. did graduate work at Michigan
State. He passed up a chance for a teaching
position there and came home. He reminded
me that another black, Clem Haskins, local
basketball hero who has played for the
Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, and Washing
ton Bullets, had just become coach at West
ern Kentucky University, "as close to home
as he can get."
H. R.'s eldest son, Tadarro, was presi
dent of his high-school class for four years.
Now a physician in Lexington, he plans to
follow the beaten path back home to set up
NationalGeographic, April 1982